


game plan

by possumdnp



Series: The June Video [2]
Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: 2018, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Anxiety, Coming Out, Dan and Phil Games, Introspection, M/M, interactive introverts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-22
Updated: 2020-02-22
Packaged: 2021-02-28 05:41:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,917
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22838770
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/possumdnp/pseuds/possumdnp
Summary: In another universe, Dan posted "the June video" in 2018 as originally planned, right in the middle of the Interactive Introverts tour. But how would he and Phil have handled the gaming channel?
Relationships: Dan Howell/Phil Lester
Series: The June Video [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1641856
Comments: 4
Kudos: 55





	game plan

**Author's Note:**

> This takes place in the same canon-divergent universe of my fic, “The June Video.” For context purposes, I would really recommend you read that fic if you haven’t already (and also because I’m proud of it!). But all you really need to know from that fic is that Dan and Phil both came out in June of 2018, after they toured Europe and before they flew to perform in America.
> 
> Special thanks to the lovely anon who prompted a fic about gaming video dynamics! I hope you enjoy this. <3

There are currently dozens of horribly-designed, nearly-naked cartoon men gyrating around on the computer screen, their non-descript dicks defying gravity.

It’s too much.

Phil’s impression of “Mount Your Friends 3D” is that it’s hilariously terrible, a so-bad-it’s-good kind of game. He kind of wants to play it later on, once the camera isn’t recording.

But their bants aren’t coming as easily as they normally do. Dan seems overly concerned with saying _exactly_ the right thing, which means he’s coming off very stilted and on-edge. And Phil’s overly aware of Dan’s discomfort, and on trying to maintain some semblance of his AmazingPhil persona by not saying anything too pervy. He imagines he’s coming off just as tense as Dan.

“I can’t do this game right now, Phil,” Dan eventually says, letting go of the mouse.

“Okay. That’s fine. We won’t do it.”

If there’s one thing Phil admires about their partnership - both in the business sense and in the life companion sense - it’s that they’re very in-tune with each other’s needs and desires. They can read each other instinctually, and they rarely push each other too far.

He reaches up and stops the camera from filming. Dan’s still staring at the computer screen, a blank expression on his face.

“Is there something else that might be easier for us to record?” Phil asks gently. He lays his hand on Dan’s back and rubs comforting circles. “We’ve got everything set up and the afternoon free.”

Dan chews at his dry lips. “Golf with Friends, maybe? That way if I seem frustrated, we can blame it on the bloody game.”

“Okay.” He holds out his hand and pulls Dan up. “Let’s go take a break and change outfits, then.”

They head down to their room, where they dig suitable clothes out of their wardrobe.

“I’m sorry,” Dan says. Phil looks over. Dan’s sitting on the bed, twisting his NASA cats shirt in his hands. “The mounting men game was really funny. I’d still like to play it, I think. When we’re out.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Phil says, smiling understandingly at him. “I get it. I think it might have been too much for me too. I feel like I was acting really awkward too.”

“You’re always awkward, buddy,” Dan says, then sighs and looks down. Phil waits for him to continue. “It’s just, I couldn’t stop thinking about my coming out video the whole time. How it’s actually gonna be posted next month, and what if everything goes horribly wrong when it’s out there for people to see?”

Phil finishes buttoning up his shirt, then sits down on the bed next to Dan. “It won’t go horribly wrong. I promise.”

Dan shrugs. “You can’t promise anything, I don’t think.”

“No, I can’t.” He takes Dan’s hand. “But if it _does_ go horribly wrong, we can cancel our tour and move to a mountain cave and become hermits together.”

“Does this cave have WiFi?”

“Of course,” Phil says. “And a cute dog, and a magic fridge that never runs out of food, and Netflix. And we’ll be together, so we’ll never get bored.”

“Well, fuck, let’s move there now.” Dan’s smiling a little now, which is all Phil wants.

“Yeah?”

Dan shakes his head. “Nah. I really do want to go on tour.” He takes a deep, calming breath. “When we’re out, I bet it’ll be _so much easier._ We can play the horrible mounting men game, and it’ll just be a laugh. We won’t even think to worry about it. We can turn our whole gaming channel gay, and no one will even care.”

_“Gay-ming_ channel,” Phil says, and Dan throws his NASA cats shirt at him.

\---

Their coming out videos are received well, so they don’t have to cancel their tour to become cave-dwelling hermits.

Still, it takes an unexpected amount of energy out of them, and they still have the rest of their tour to go.

It makes Phil extremely glad that they chose to take a mini internet hiatus from all of their channels in July. He and Dan are both exhausted from touring, and from the emotional weight of coming out. There’s absolutely no way they could have kept up with their channels on top of everything else in their lives right now.

Everything still feels raw and fresh to Phil, like he’s seeing the world through brand new eyes. He didn’t expect to feel this way, really. He’s been out to most people in his life for a decade now. He’s more than used to saying the words, “I’m gay.”

But hearing their subscribers actually thank them at their meet-and-greets? Being able to stand on a stage and make references to being gay to hundreds of people? It’s unexpectedly _a lot,_ even though he knows it’s been even more of an intense experience for Dan.

Most people at their meet-and-greets focus on Dan, telling him how much his video meant to them. Phil wouldn’t want it any other way; it’s a masterpiece.

But a few people actually tell _Phil_ that his low-key video helped them, the six-second long clip of him literally coming out of a closet. And that astounds Phil. It makes him feel weirdly emotional every time someone looks into his eyes and tells him that his little video made them laugh.

America passes by in a blur of bright lights, faces and regional accents, too many late nights, sticky-sweet pancakes, and tour bus nausea.

And before they know it, it’s been over a whole month since they’ve come out, and August is looming in front of them. They’re already in Kentucky, and they’re easing back to their regularly-scheduled posting. Just pre-recorded gaming videos for now, not much work on their part besides uploading.

Golf with Friends is the perfect way to start, as it’s a fan-favourite series. Then they post Bucket of Doom and the Extreme Tetris video. All funny and tame enough, nothing particularly noteworthy.

(Phil does notice right away that their views are _significantly_ up on all of the new videos they’re posting. He tries not to think too hard about why that is, tries not to read the comments discussing how closely they’re sitting. Because if he thinks about it, he’s gonna get anxious.)

But then there’s the Sims.

If there’s one thing their subscribers will never let them forget about, it’s that Dab and Evan haven’t “messed around” yet. Everyone wants a thrilling conclusion to that particular interrupted arc. It seems like it’s half of the mentions they get on Twitter these days.

But the thing is, he and Dan haven’t recorded it yet.

They were planning to during their week home in June, but they were both incredibly stressed, knowing that they would be posting their coming out videos in a few days. So they only managed to get a few videos pre-recorded then, the easy ones like Tetris. And then after coming out, they had both been too emotionally exhausted to deal with gaming.

But now, a few months later, it’s time. The subscribers are right; Dab and Evan _do_ need their story finished.

Except... Phil’s finding that it’s not as easy as simply filming a video like they usually do. Because when they get to Vancouver and get out their recording equipment, it’s like all of the confidence goes out of both of them.

First comes an intense discussion about where they should set up the camera.

“Should we have the bed in shot?” Dan asks. He’s holding the camera in one hand and the tripod in the other.

“Everyone’s gonna focus on that, probably,” Phil says. “I mean, is it too on-point to have our first tour gaming video have a bed in it? Like, Dab and Evan are gonna have sex in Dab’s bed in this video, aren’t they? What if it’s weird?”

They stare at the hotel bed together, and a wave of sheer anxiety washes over Phil. This should be so simple. Why is it already so difficult?

They finally decide to set up the camera so that their background is the window curtains. The fabric is ugly and beige, and they have to sit at an awkward angle to make it work, but it’s better than overthinking the bed in the background.

And then Phil starts worrying about how closely they’re sitting together. Have they always sat so close together while filming? When Dan moves the mouse, he’ll brush his arm against Phil’s. That’s too close, isn’t it?

Phil scoots his chair a little bit to the left.

“What are you doing?” Dan asks. “You’re halfway out of shot now. Get back here.”

Phil scoots back toward him, and now he’s _way_ too close. They’re practically sitting on top of each other. Which would be perfectly fine if there wasn’t a camera in front of them right now.

“This is so stupid,” Phil moans, moving his chair again and staring at the blinking light on the camera. “We’ve made, like, fifty Sims videos before. And like, hundreds of gaming videos. This should be the easiest thing in the world. Why are we overthinking it this much?”

“I don’t know what to tell you.” Dan sits back in his chair. “Maybe we could get drunk and record?”

Phil rolls his eyes. “We’re not getting drunk, Dan. If we do, Dil will inevitably set something on fire and all of our Sims will die tragically. And we’ll be too drunk to stop it from happening. We need to be responsible, sober Sims parents.”

Dan snorts. “We’re _literally_ buying Dab and Evan a locked door so they can fuck in peace. Is that responsible parenting to you?”

“Definitely.”

They sit in deafening silence.

The camera light blinks.

Their Sims sit frozen in time on the screen.

Phil can feel a headache coming on from all of this. Damn it. A headache is the last thing he needs.

Eventually, Dan reaches over and gently puts his hand over Phil’s. “Hey. So maybe we’re not feeling it right now.”

“Yeah.”

“How about we record Google Feud right now? We always like filming that. And we can order pizza, so maybe we can eat afterwards. It’ll be a nice treat, something to look forward to.”

Phil breathes out a sigh of relief. “Yeah. I think I’d really like that.”

They exit out of the Sims and start up Google Feud instead.

Whether it’s their residual nerves or their exhaustion, it’s an absolute mess of a video, but in the best way. Dan talks in a bizzare valley girl accent for half the video and screams entirely too much for them being in a hotel, and Phil can’t seem to guess a single answer correctly. Their pizza arrives right in the middle of filming - a solid blooper that they’re definitely including.

In any case, Phil’s feeling a lot calmer than when they started. He thinks this one’s going to be pretty funny. Maybe it’s just that everything’s better on a stomach full of pizza.

And then, it’s once again time for the Sims. They change into different shirts and turn the game back on. Phil can already feel the anxiety clawing at his insides, and Dan’s gone quiet, a distinct change from how animated he had been while recording the last video.

“What if… what if we switch things up?” Phil says tentatively, breaking the silence. “What if we make it so that it isn’t the focus of the video? The, uh. The gay Sim sex, I mean.”

“What do you mean?” Dan asks, leaning back in his chair.

“I mean, what if instead of getting right into it, we go back to Dil’s life? Say we missed seeing him or something, do some mad scientist stuff for a little bit. It could make things easier, you know? Take the attention off of it. Come back to Dab at the end.”

“That’s not a bad idea, actually. I kinda miss Dil.”

“Yeah? Me too.” Phil smiles. He feels relieved, like maybe this won’t be so difficult after all.

And it was a good decision, Phil thinks. Playing as Dil is easy. Dan seems a lot calmer, and Phil feels the same.

When they get around to playing as Dab and Evan, it feels like seeing old friends after being separated for a long time. He missed these two; they’re sweet and awkward.

And when the “messing around” finally happens, he and Dan both burst into laughter. Phil knows that half of it is out of nerves and exhaustion. But the other half is that they’re both so happy to finally be able to do this, to be able to share this cute, fictional queer romance with their audience, and not have it be a big deal.

It’s exactly what Phil would have liked to have seen as a teen, and that makes him feel a lot better about it. He’s probably helping someone out there who’s just like him.

“You okay?” Phil asks when they’re done filming. The camera is put away, and they’ve got their pajamas on, ready for a night of Netflix and going to sleep early. Having an actual bed that they can share together feels like an actual dream after a month of living on a tour bus.

“Yeah. I think I am. You?”

Phil nods. “I thought it would be easier, I guess. I thought we could just film gaming videos, and it’d be just like how it always was. I didn’t think we’d have to think about everything.”

Dan shrugs. “This is the first thing we’ve filmed since coming out. Makes sense that people are gonna be watching us more closely. And when have you ever known the two of us not to overthink something?”

“True.” Phil smiles, then yawns. “I’m probably not gonna make it through a whole episode of this show, sorry.”

Dan kisses his shoulder. “It’s okay. We’ve got a flight to catch tomorrow. Should probably get some rest anyway.”

Phil tries his very hardest to stay awake, because it’s only nine at night, but he’s so comfortable next to Dan that he finds himself drifting off.

\---

“Hello, Dan and Phil Games dreamboats,” Phil says cheerily. He’s wearing a heart-covered button down, and he’s beyond excited to film today.

Heartthrob is the perfect game for the end of this long year. It’s a game they genuinely like and play in their free time, and it’ll make for a lighthearted video, since they can easily make fun of it.

There's other games that Phil wants to eventually play on the channel, like the hilariously bad “Mount Your Friends” game. But right now, that's pushing their limits a little too far. Making a video featuring a plethora of cartoon dicks still seems a bit too much.

But this tacky, mildly offensive, but still charming 80s game that they both know and love? That’s more their speed.

“Apparently, it’s _‘for all girls who like boys,’”_ Dan reads off the box in an exaggerated tone. “Yikes. Well today, it’s gonna for _everyone_ who likes boys. And everyone who doesn’t. You’re all invited.”

“Dan and Phil Games: we’re all about equality,” Phil says, and he can already imagine editing in his words as a slogan at the bottom of the screen.

“Would you have liked to have played this when you were younger, Phil?” Dan asks, opening up the box. “Would you have been like the girl on the box?” He holds the box up so the camera can capture the dreamy-looking teen.

“Of course,” Phil says, already rifling through the cards. “These guys are all total catches. Twelve year old me would have been totally smitten with…” He draws a card and laughs. “Andy.”

Dan sputters out a loud laugh at the picture of the guy. “He looks _exactly_ like you as a teenager. Would you really want to date a clone of yourself?”

“I mean, you and me did have matching haircuts for years,” Phil says, and then pauses and draws his hand across his throat - a signal to himself while editing. “We’re definitely cutting that out.”

“Well, it’s true. We did,” Dan says in his regular, non-YouTuber voice, giving Phil a fond look. “Remember all those people who asked if we were brothers?”

Phil rolls his eyes. “You know I hate it when that happens.”

They continue on with filming, and the game goes well. Phil is having so much fun playing that he’s almost surprised when they reach their last round, and they have to choose which guy they’d choose to date. And it’s too easy.

“How did you guess I would choose Richard?” Dan whines when Phil guesses correctly.

“‘Cause Richard's totally your type,” Phil says, nudging Dan playfully. “Total dork who's a bit of a furry? You could romance the heck out of him. And look at him nibble those glasses.” He waves Richard at Dan, and Dan pretends to get sick.

And maybe the comment is too much, maybe it’ll be another line they’ll cut out when they edit the video. But they probably won’t.

They can say things like that now, and it’s okay.

There’s certain things they’re not ready for, certain things they’ll _never_ do on their channels. Phil knows they're forever going to be discussing their limits when it comes to their videos. But when he looks over and watches Dan rant passionately about this stupid, cheesy old board game, he feels so damn proud of how far they’ve come this year.

**Author's Note:**

> If you enjoyed this story, feel free to reblog it [here!](https://possumdnp.tumblr.com/post/190956492250/gameplan)


End file.
